You should spend some time examining your home before you decide to paint it. This is how you should address the situation in order to provide your home with the glamour it deserves.
Remove Mildew
Among the many problems that mildew will cause to your exterior paint are peeling, blistering and chalking. Water leaks for instance will bear discolored patches, and mildew and rot as well. Specialists from the Paint Quality Institute instruct that you should remove mildew with a solution consisting of three parts water and one part bleach. This mixture needs to be placed on the surface and allowed to breathe for about 20 minutes – when it dries out, you should apply more and rinse thoroughly. You should be mindful of your safety and wear eye and skin protection at all times while doing so.
Clean the Surface
Since paint will not remain fixed on dust or other types of dirt, you should clean the exterior of your house thoroughly. If you use a power washer, you should know that it extends pressure up to 3,500 pounds per square inch when it leaves the wand. If you have enough experience, the power washer will prove to be a remarkable tool. If you do not use this tool properly however, you might cause a lot of damage. When the pressure is high, the stream might etch wood, break glass and will moisturize the whole area, which naturally means that you will need to wait for it until it dries out before you start painting.
Sand and patch
You will need to commit to some scraping and sanding when everything is cleaned out. If there are gouges or holes on your wood siding, you should use an exterior-grade patching compound in order to pluck them. You should place new siding on areas, which are too damaged to fill. All cracks or gaps in the wood need to be filled with paintable exterior caulk of high quality. Make sure you fill in any holes, which are situated between windows, doors, corners and edges on the exterior.
Cover Edges and Trim
For the areas which are not to be painted, you should mask them. The edge of the house trim should be covered by painter’s tape, and this should apply to door frames, window frames and part of trim, which you want colored differently. In order to protect them from drips, you should place newspapers or cloth on windows and doors. Make sure you place drop cloths on various portions you do not want covered in paint, such as plants, porches and roof areas.
Apply Primer
You might want to use a primer or sealer before starting, if you want to get the best results. The primer will make the paint react better to the surface you are painting. Primer is useful in pretty much all occasions, but it is especially needed when you are painting things that have never undergone the process before, or when you are working on new wood or bare stucco. Primer finds its use greatly on highly damaged surfaces as well.
It might sound like a long process, and it is – preparation might take you more than half the time of the whole Denver exterior painting project. It is important however, since a properly preoared surface will last for up to 15 years.
Employing a Professional
If you think that you cannot cope with the job yourself, or you don’t have the time to do it, you should consider hiring a professional. In order to make sure you have found the right person for the job, you should meet up with more than one contractor and ask them the following questions:
What are the materials they will use? Who will decide on the paint – the contractor or you? If the choice would fall on the contractor, will they offer a paint of high quality?
Make sure you inquire about and then check out references. Ask all referred customers whether they are satisfied with the job at hand and how the contractor treated them. You might want to go for a visit and see their homes yourself.
Inquire whether the contractor has the right licensing and insurances. What is the timeframe in which the company has been operational? Does the company have any business affiliations? The Better Business Bureau will tell you about any complaints against the contractor. Ask about the terms of payment before any work is started. Never pay anything before the painting job begins.
At DOWD RESTORATION we not only do a great Denver house painting job at a great price, we believe that its the “little” things that can make a BIG difference in your overall satisfaction, whether you are selling your Denver home or plan to live in it for decades to come.
Many of the historic homes in Denver were built prior to or just after the turn of the 20th Century, so preserving them to their original glory takes a little extra TLC. Here are the final two signs that now may be the time to restore the exterior of your home.
Just like with any house, you want to maintain the protective coating on your home so it remains weather-tight. Historic homes don’t have the benefit of modern-day exterior finishes, such as vinyl or fiber-cement siding or stucco. The exterior was constructed out of wood or brick, and although these materials are durable, rain, wind, snow and even UV rays from the sun can weaken and deteriorate them. Once the seal of your home is cracked, moisture and insects can get inside the walls causing further damage – that usually goes unnoticed until a major repair is needed.
Furthermore, preparation on these homes is a delicate process. Steps are being taken to preserve the original pieces (where we can) and duplicating pieces that can’t be saved. This work is very much a hands-on approach so that the details can be saved so that your home may remain “true” to the time period in which it was built.
Many options will allow you to return the exterior of your home to its original glory. Vinyl siding can be torn down and the original wooden siding can be restored, and even the paint on brick homes can be removed through a specialized process. Everyone has a different budget, wants, needs and vision for their home, but it is your contractor’s job to make it right – to your specifications.
Historic homes built in Denver in the late 1800s through the 1940s have a unique set of challenges when it comes to maintaining the exterior. Homes built during this time were constructed much differently than they are today – from roofline to the foundation (and everything in between) – which gives older homes “character” that is often absent in new construction.
#1: Paint is peeling.
#2: The color needs correcting.
